One of my favorite rice porridge (congee or jook) toppings, is roe-tsong, or literally translated, "loose meat." It is also known as "pork floss" in some circles. I am sure you are asking about now, "What is 'loose meat?' Sounds naughty!"
See the mottled fibers in the lower right-hand corner of the image? Loose meat is essentially seasoned and dried pulled pork, and it is packed with barbecued flavors. Imagine taking a piece of regular dried jerky, and pulling the individual meat tendrils apart, one at a time, to yield a tuft of stringy dried meat fibers. That is what it is. Basically it is pulled pork jerky. Perhaps my description sounds unappetizing, but lemme tell ya', it is very tasty. The Chinese always know how to make the most out of a little protein by "extending" it, either by chopping it up into little bite-sized pieces for a stirfry, or by ripping apart pork jerky, to serve as a delicious snack or topping for an entrée. Sound interesting? You should try it! Loose meat is sold in Asian markets everywhere.
For more exotic and unconventional (but tasty) Chinese foods, check out my posts on century/thousand-year-old eggs and on five spice pressed tofu:
And for more of my posts on congee and porridge, check out these two (non-substantive, but food pornish--meaning, there are pictures) of my congee/porridge experiences:
Can you turn down a bespectacled and uniformed third grade Brownie with pleading puppy-dog eyes?
Well, my answer is no. Especially not if she armed with (and selling) colorful boxes of sugar-laden Girl Scout cookies. Like the rest of America, my favorites are Thin Mints and Samoas. Unlike the rest of America, I would knife a guy in the gut to get my yearly quota of Samoas.
If you've never sampled a Samoa, allow me explain the heavenly cookie ingredients that lead to my demented infatuation.
Samoas start with a buttery shortbread cookie with a hole stamped out the middle. Think of it as a sugary, oversized, and decadent Cherrio, if you will. Then, the cookie is blanketed in a generous carpeting of dessicated and toasted coconut flakes and enrobed with a gluey caramel adhesive. The cookie is then decorated with swirly chocolate stripes, which hypnotically beckon your lips and tongue for a sweet taste. The end result after this arduous cookie-making process is "the Samoa," the Girl Scout cookie of all cookies! And yes, I can polish off an entire box in one day!
If the Girl Scout cookie season was year-round, Samoas really would be my everyday pleasure!
Chicken broth, brown rice, and chili sauce make a fantastically lazy weekend meal. Simple, affordable, and surprisingly delicious!
And sorry for the limited content in this post. I wanted to get a new post out so that my new header would look "original"--and it wouldn't look original next to yesterday's post!
What makes flat ribbons of al dente fettucine worth a spot on my lunchtime radar screen? A hearty jade-colored infusion of spinach of course! Greener than spring foliage at the San Francisco Botanical Garden, spinach pasta is the best way to incorporate your five daily servings of vegetables (or fruit) with your necessary servings of grains and carbohydrates. Abundant in iron, cartenoids, and vitamins A and K, the healthy attributes of spinach are captured in spinach pasta, but presented in a much more kid-friendly package. Your kids will say, "Eww, green noodles! . . . Can I have some?" There are "illusory" benefits for us adults too. Since spinach pasta is green, it can technically be categorized a vegetable. . . Right? Thus, even if you are on a low-carb diet, eating spinach pasta is a win-win situation!
My dream car as a child was a 4X4 monster truck with "fertilizer spreader" tires.
I find Jeff Foxworthy heehaw-larious.
It feels best when I drink my beer (Keystone) in a plastic 7-Eleven cup.
I used listen to hardcore country music.
I've lived in a trailer.
And . . . I consider Fritos and a six-pack of soda to be the breakfast equivalent of cereal and milk.
However, living in the Bay Area has had a significant impact on my preferences, behavior, and appetite.
My ideal car now is a hybrid and my fridge is stocked with lanky glass bottles of artisan brewed pale ales and speciality sodas--courtesy of my roommate. However, the most drastic change in my life, is that my Fritos have been replaced with an exotic potpourri of organic and trans fat-free vegetable chips, including dried slices of parsnip, batata yam, taro, and yucca root.
At times, I miss the combo of carbonated sugar water and the monosodium glutamate saturated cumin corn curls, but I've learned to appreciate the subtleties of vegetable chips. Instead of throwing away the irregular chip with the screwy and burnt looking brown marks, I've learned that "that" is actually taro and it is one of the tastier ones. Admittedly, I originally thought these chips tasted like chalky pieces of broken plaster, but now, my tastebuds have acclimated to this gourmet snack food, which is immensely popular up here in the Bay Area.
But don't tell my roommate, I secretly make late night runs for my Fritos fix.
I hope the revelations in this post haven't destroyed my food blogger cred' in your eyes. Y'all please come back now, y'hear?
Princess, imagine one of these under your mattress.
These dry-roasted pea pebbles are encompassed with buttery jackets of crunchy cracker coating, and often spiced up with a piquant bite of wasabi.
After being introduced to this healthy snack invention a year ago, I've been an addict ever since. And I am constantly thinking of ways to incorporate these simple, yet fulfilling Japanese munchies into my life.
Rather than reaching into a crumpled foil bag half-full with broken and translucent potato chips, I now make a beeline for dehydrated peas. No more popcorn at the movies! No more pretzels during the Monday night football game! Rather, I electrify my palate by substituting wasabi peas for monotonous and lackluster snacks instead.
The best thing about these pea snacks, is that your hands won't be filthy with residual neon-orange cheese powder afterwards. And, after snacktime, you can raise your spotless hands in the air and proclaim, "No oleaginousness here!"
What makes these buns my "everyday pleasure," is that the affordable buns can be purchased from the frozen food section in almost any Asian supermarket, and later microwaved whenever you have a hankering for them.
Forget the barbequed meat, when you can have an equally delicious vegetarian alternative in just a couple of microwave minutes!